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_posts/2021-04-02-supporter-spotlight-ford-foundation.md

+---
+layout: post
+title: "Supporter spotlight: Ford Foundation"
+date: 2021-04-02 00:00:00
+categories: org
+draft: true
+---
+
+[![]({{ "/images/news/supporter-spotlight-ford-foundation/ford-foundation.png#right" | relative_url }})](https://www.fordfoundation.org/)
+
+<big>The Reproducible Builds project replies on our [many projects, supporters
+and sponsors]({{ "/who/" | relative_url }}) for their financial
+support, but they are also valued ambassadors who spread the word about the
+Reproducible Builds project and the work that we do.</big>
+
+We started this series by featuring the [Civil Infrastructure Platform](https://www.cip-project.org/) project, but in today's post we are speaking with
+[**Michael Brennan**](https://www.fordfoundation.org/about/people/michael-brennan/),
+the program officer on the *Technology and Society* team at the [**Ford
+Foundation**](https://www.fordfoundation.org/).
+
+If you are a supporter of the Reproducible Builds project (of whatever size)
+and would like to be featured here, please let get in touch with us at
+[contact@reproducible-builds.org](mailto:contact@reproducible-builds.org).
+
+<br>
+
+**Chris Lamb: Hi Michael, it is great to meet you. For someone who has not
+heard of the Ford Foundation before, can you give us a brief history of the
+organization, and what it does today?**
+
+Michael: The Ford Foundation is a private foundation that gives grants to
+support ideas, individuals, and institutions working to advance social justice.
+Our grants have supported critical organizations and activists on the front
+lines of civil and human rights, the arts, poverty, and
+[so much more](https://www.fordfoundation.org/about/about-ford/a-legacy-of-social-justice/).
+
+In 1936, Edsel Ford — son of Henry, the founder of the Ford Motor
+Company — established the Ford Foundation with an initial gift of $25,000. The
+Ford Foundation is an independent organization, led by a distinguished board of
+trustees whose 16 members hail from four continents and bring leadership and
+expertise in a wide range of disciplines. Today we are stewards of a $14
+billion endowment, making $500 million in grants around the world every year.
+We believe that social movements are built upon individual leadership, strong
+institutions, and innovative, often high-risk ideas. While the specifics of
+what we work on have evolved over the years, investments in these three areas
+have remained the touchstones of everything we do and are central to our theory
+of how change happens in the world. These approaches have long distinguished
+the Ford Foundation, and they have had a profound cumulative impact.
+
+Across eight decades, our mission has been to reduce poverty and injustice,
+strengthen democratic values, promote international cooperation, and advance
+human achievement.
+
+<br>
+
+**Chris: Technology is often used for education and to promote justice but it
+can also amplify inequality. Is the Ford Foundation concerned with this issue
+and, if so, what steps are you taking to help this?**
+
+Technology isn't a neutral tool. It is a creation of people, systems,
+organizations and societies that are anything but neutral. This means ensuring
+technology promotes a more just and equitable society takes a lot of work. We
+believe that our role in this is to support a diverse and sustainable field of
+civil society actors that think critically about how technology can advance
+justice rather than amplify inequality. The groups we support employ a wide
+range of approaches in service of this goal. Some, like [Media Justice](https://mediajustice.org/),
+organize and advocate for technology policy issues like net neutrality.
+Programs like [Tech Congress](https://www.techcongress.io/) bring thoughtful
+technologists into the halls of Congress so federal lawmakers have access to
+holistic expertise on technology issues. And others, like
+[Article 19](https://www.article19.org/), work on ensuring that the design of
+the infrastructure that governs the internet continually centers the needs of
+the public interest and not just the needs of corporations and governments.
+
+![]({{ "/images/news/supporter-spotlight-ford-foundation/image2.png#center" | relative_url }})
+
+As part of our current mission, we recognize the importance of technology in
+undergirding all of modern society. And we believe that without just, equitable
+technology policy, governance, and development, we cannot have a just society.
+I am a part of the Technology and Society team, which focuses on issues of
+internet freedom, digital rights and technology capacity building throughout
+civil society. For example, we support the work of [Citizen Lab](https://citizenlab.ca/)
+which is researching cyberattacks on activists around the world, and
+organizations like [Black in AI](https://blackinai.github.io/#/) working to
+strengthen Black representation in the field of artificial intelligence because
+we believe that technology doesn't stand a chance for equitable impact without
+equitable representation among people who create it.
+
+![]({{ "/images/news/supporter-spotlight-ford-foundation/image1.jpg#center" | relative_url }})
+
+![]({{ "/images/news/supporter-spotlight-ford-foundation/image3.jpg#center" | relative_url }})
+
+But all of our teams recognize the importance of just approaches to technology
+and incorporate that value into our grantmaking. For example, our Gender,
+Racial and Ethnic Justice team focuses on criminal justice reform and the role
+that algorithmic decision making has in making criminal justice systems more
+unfair. And our Future of Work(ers) team engages deeply to support worker
+advocacy groups around how technology is leading to the increasing
+'gig-ification' of work and erosion of worker rights.
+
+<br>
+
+**Chris: Reproducible builds aims to increase the transparency of our most
+important technology projects, to decentralise trust and to empower end users.
+How does this fit into the objectives of the Ford Foundation?**
+
+Foundations have long been involved in policy and economics systems that must
+change in the fight for social justice. Where foundations, including Ford, have
+been less engaged are in the technical systems that can have just as
+significant of an impact on the lives of people around the world. Part of my
+job is to identify areas in these technical systems that overlap strongly with
+Ford's goals and also represent places where our grantmaking can have a
+meaningful impact.
+
+Reproducible Builds is a great example of this. We know the supply chain of
+software is critical to the daily lives of most people on the planet, yet we
+don't think much about the security of that supply chain compared to, say, the
+ones that govern our food or our clothes. If a group like Reproducible Builds
+can have a meaningful impact on making this system more trustworthy, secure and
+decentralized - that's a win for the public interest, and a model we can point
+to as we continue to advocate for more equitable systems that govern,
+distribute and deploy the technology we all rely on every day.
+
+<br>
+
+**Chris: Like the Reproducible Builds project, the Ford Foundation intends to
+have a global impact. How much do you feel being a part of a worldwide
+community helps achieve your aims?**
+
+Ford Foundation has 11 offices around the world. In some cases, it is important
+for strategies and grantmaking to be focused on local or regional change. In
+others it's impossible to do that without also working on the related global
+systems. Building a more just future with respect to technology requires global
+coordination because, ultimately, the internet and related technologies are a
+global public good that must serve us all equitably or it will fail us. I am
+fortunate to get to work every day with colleagues and grantee partners around
+the world working towards a common vision even though the goals on the ground
+may change day-to-day and region-to-region.
+
+<br>
+
+[![]({{ "/images/news/supporter-spotlight-ford-foundation/ford-foundation.png#right" | relative_url }})](https://www.fordfoundation.org/)
+
+**Chris: If someone wanted to know more about the Ford Foundation (or even to
+get involved) where should they go to look?**
+
+We have an extensive amount of information on our website - far more than I
+could articulate here. To get involved, [look towards the work we
+support](https://www.fordfoundation.org/work/challenging-inequality/technology-and-society/).
+Ford Foundation is here to help ensure frontline organizations are getting the
+support they need to do their jobs. Identify areas you are interested in,
+learning what others are doing, and seeing how you might be able to help. If
+you want to stay more closely engaged with the Digital Infrastructure strategy
+which is the home to grants like Reproducible Builds, [follow this page](https://www.fordfoundation.org/work/challenging-inequality/technology-and-society/digital-infrastructure/).
+
+<br>
+
+---
+
+*For more about the Reproducible Builds project, please see our website at
+[reproducible-builds.org]({{ "/" | relative_url }}). If you are interested in
+ensuring the ongoing security of the software that underpins our civilisation
+and wish to sponsor the Reproducible Builds project, please reach out to the
+project by emailing
+[contact@reproducible-builds.org](mailto:contact@reproducible-builds.org).*